Ham, London

Ham is a suburban district in south-west London in the borough of Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, England. Located 9.25 miles south-west of Charing Cross in central London, 1 mile south of Richmond upon Thames, and 2 miles north of Kingston upon Thames, Ham is situated along the River Thames. Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Hamme, meaning "place in the bend of a river", and it was inhabited by the Romano-British before being colonized by Saxon settlers in the 5th century AD. During the 12th century, Ham became a village, and, from the beginning of the 17th century, Ham's agricultural area began to be developed as a suburb of London. From 1838 to 1848, Ham was the site of a utopian community, and its agricultural industry vanished during the 1950s; by the 21st century, Ham was a commuter residential area dependent on employment outside the immediate area.